


I Was Aiming for His Head

by 2x2verse (agent_florida)



Series: 2x2 [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Aromantic Character, F/M, M/M, Obsessive Behavior, Open Relationships, Trans Character, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 23:33:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1282771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent_florida/pseuds/2x2verse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>GT: Oh for flips sake get over it you scoundrel!<br/>TT: Thanks, I hadn't even considered that.<br/>GT: Sarcasm?<br/>TT: You betcha.</p><p>--</p><p>Jake can only do friends; Dirk doesn't want friends. Roxy loves indiscriminately; Dirk's has turned into obsession. Jade likes peering into the mechanisms; Dirk wants to reverse-engineer perfection. Princes destroy their aspects, but the only heart Dirk has broken is his own.</p><p>--</p><p>3 8trax for the price of 1!<br/>http://8tracks.com/agent_florida/i-was-aiming-for-his-head-a-sides<br/>http://8tracks.com/agent_florida/i-was-aiming-for-his-head-b-sides<br/>http://8tracks.com/agent_florida/i-was-aiming-for-his-head-c-sides</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

\-- gardenGnostic  [GG] began pestering golgothasTerror  [GT] at 17:03 --  
GG: how goes it??  
GT: Im not sure.  
GG: still excited about the shooting range tonight??? :D  
GT: Of course i am dove!  
GT: Im gung ho to the max!  
GT: This is going to be a spanking ripsnorter of a night!!!  
GG: thats a lot of exclamation points  
GT: All right so i dont know who to ask to come with us to the scopeout.  
GG: you dont have to ask anyone  
GG: i just thought the more the merrier!! :)  
GT: And i do want to get some publicity for the rifle team.  
GT: Its just that i dont want to interrupt if anyone else is having a perfectly satisfactory friday evening without us.  
GG: if youre too shy to ask someone i could do it for you?  
GT: No thats alright jade.  
GT: I just need to get my thumb out my arse get up my gumption and send some messages.  
GG: good luck!!!  
GG: i need to ask someone else myself  
GG: but we need to leave in a half hour so let me know soon! :)  
\-- gardenGnostic  [GG] ceased pestering golgothasTerror  [GT] at 17:22 --

\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] began pestering timaeusTestified  [TT] at 17:23 --  
TT: Whatever you want, the answer's no.  
GT: I havent even had a chance to talk to you yet comrade!  
TT: I know, I'm just getting ahead of the conversation.  
TT: So what's up?  
GT: Well i was sitting here twiddling my thumbs and sitting on my hands when i realised i could ask you to come out on a friday night.  
TT: First of all, I don't even want to know where your thumbs were during all that.  
TT: Second of all, I've already come out pretty effectively, and I didn't even need your help.  
TT: Thirdly, I have other plans tonight.  
TT: And lastly, even if I didn't, I'd still have to turn you down.  
GT: Im going to regret this but.  
GT: What other plans buckaroo?  
TT: I have a robotics meeting tonight.  
TT: Our vice-president is already going to be AWOL over this.  
TT: As the president, I can't be gone too.  
GT: Well thats understandable i suppose.  
GT: If i may ask whos the vp?  
TT: Roxy.  
TT: She's going to your meeting instead.  
GT: And youd rather she spend tonight with you?  
GT: I rather thought wed moved past this being jealous over flighty broads thing old boy.  
TT: I'm not jealous!  
GT: Youre jealous.  
TT: I'm jealous.  
GT: Well its not as if the evening will be a total loss!  
GT: Our outing wont take us but a wink and shell be back on campus early enough that you can move your meeting back.  
GT: Eridan has other malarkey to do this evening anyway so we have to cut it short.  
GT: So what do you say? Join us in our endeavor?  
TT: Nah.  
GT: Oh come off it old sport.  
GT: Theres no friggin reason why we cant be perfectly amiable.  
TT: I think you might have forgotten about something.  
GT: And whats that?  
TT: All of high school.  
TT: We don't work.  
TT: At all.  
TT: Not as boyfriends.  
TT: Not as friends with benefits.  
TT: Not even as friends.  
GT: Oh for flips sake get over it you scoundrel!  
TT: Thanks, I hadn't even considered that.  
GT: Sarcasm?  
TT: You betcha.  
GT: Well ill leave you alone with your malcontent and bitterness.  
GT: Im going to go ask someone who actually cares!  
\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] ceased pestering timaeusTestified  [TT] at 17:38 --

\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] began pestering apocalypseArisen  [AA] at 17:39 --  
AA: hell0 jake  
AA: the h0mew0rk f0r m0nday is review the end 0f chapter f0ur  
AA: and read the first half 0f chapter five  
GT: Thats very kind of you aradia!  
GT: Youre so thoughtful.  
AA: think n0thing 0f it  
GT: No i mean it i really appreciate it!  
GT: Most of the time i just forget to write it down on purpose so i have a reason to message you.  
AA: im just glad i c0uld help y0u  
GT: Youre such a sweet girl.  
GT: Im actually not messaging you for the assignment.  
AA: 0h  
AA: why d0 y0u want t0 talk t0 me then  
GT: Its actually hard for me to talk to you because boy howdy i.  
AA: i d0nt understand  
GT: Okay im just going to spit this out because im not very good with the female species.  
AA: y0u d0nt say  
GT: I think youre absotively posilutely the bees knees.  
AA: is this s0me human euphemism i d0nt kn0w  
GT: Most likely.  
GT: Youre. Well.  
GT: I like listening to you talk.  
GT: You spin such interesting yarns about your spelunking hijinks on alternia and all i can think is i wish i had been there for your adventures.  
GT: And youre also quite respectable in the looks area.  
GT: I mean wowza.  
AA: 0h  
AA: i really d0nt kn0w what t0 say  
GT: In a good way or in the way that means you think im an epic friggin tool?  
AA: the g00d way  
AA: the very g00d way  
GT: Oh.  
GT: Well.  
GT: Perhaps you could be a standup gal and accompany me on an outing this evening.  
AA: what kind 0f 0uting is this  
GT: A group of us are scoping out a local shooting range for the rifle team.  
GT: So what do you say to this proposition?  
AA: when are we leaving?  
GT: Five minutes.  
AA: y0u d0nt have cheer practice t0night?  
GT: Of course not.  
GT: Its a friday night and weve already done the pep rally for tomorrows game.  
GT: So what do you say?  
AA: i guess ill see y0u s00n then  
GT: I guess so miss!  
AA: 0u0  
\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] ceased pestering apocalypseArisen  [AA] at 17:55 --


	2. Chapter 2

There’s nothing Jake likes more than the smile on a woman’s face the first time she shoots a firearm.

Aradia is a treasure. She took so easily to her baby Beretta and her pocket revolver, the cute little one with the pink handle, that Jake immediately graduated her to his golden Desert Eagles. They’re somewhat large, but she holds the one so easily. The way she stares down the barrel, aligning the iron sights with the target at the end of the range, makes something go sideways in Jake’s chest. When she fires, the reverberation travels along her entire body, and while she steps backwards to compensate for the kickback, she’s also shrieking and giggling at the raw power she holds in her hands.

He might actually like her. Quite a lot.

“Like this,” he tells her gently, nudging her foot back to her correct shooting stance. “I know the blowback is intense, but you’re such a strong-spirited gal, I know you can handle it.” She brings the gun up again, and he touches her elbow gently, guiding her back into position with subtle fingertips. “Here. Let me show you.”

“I don’t know what you—oh.” Her voice goes very soft towards the end once Jake actually presses his chest to her back. His hands come to her shoulders, aligning her to face the target head-on, and he can feel her breathing when his hands skim down her sides to rest at her hips.

“Nice and solid in your stance,” he tells her. “If you hold your arms like this,” and he corrects her arms again, keeping some give in her elbows, “it won’t be quite so bad. I promise your wrist won’t break.”

Aradia is very quiet. “I can’t shoot right now.”

“Why not, dove?”

“My hands are shaking.”

The muzzle of the gun won’t quite go straight. “So you are. Here. Let me.” Jake frames her arms with his, resting his chin on the part in her hair. Her body fits so well in his and good golly does she smell so good, like green tea and lemon and white musk and aloe and all soft, beautiful things. “Now squeeze—very gently—and…”

The gun fires, the bullet leaving a perfect strike through the center of the bulls-eye of the target. “Wow,” Aradia sighs. “Thank you.”

“I only helped,” Jake stammers out. “You’re a natural. A bloody good shot, if I do say so myself.”

Aradia puts the gun down, turns in his arms, looks up at him through her long, dark lashes with quite the serious expression on her face. For a split-second, he’s scared that she’s going to gore his throat with one of her ram horns. Then her gaze softens, the corners of her mouth up-tilting in a small smile. “Thank you so much for inviting me,” she whispers, then ducks under his arm and out of his hold so someone else can have a turn at the range.

Jake just looks at her with puppy-dog eyes and a doofy grin on his face.

The outing is a rousing success. By the time Jade drives all of them back to campus, everyone smells like gunpowder and there’s ringing in their ears and it’s the best time any of them has ever had at a range. Aradia walks her fingers across the seat so they brush over Jake’s, and he holds her hand, carefully looking out the window so he can hide his flush. When they arrive, Jake insists on walking her back to her dorm, even though it’s just barely dark out. He prides himself on being a gentleman, and he wants to make sure the lady gets home safe.

“I had a lovely evening,” he blathers on. He really wishes she would hit him or something so he’d shut up and stop making a fool of himself. “I was so excited to spend time with you outside of class. I thought you’d be lovely. You really are quite lovely. Quite.” Shut up, Jake, shut up shut up shut up…

Aradia just smiles and blushes. She’s unbearably adorable. “I can’t believe I just spent time with the captain of the cheer squad.”

“Oh, pish posh,” he waves it off. “I’m really not that interesting when it comes right down to it. Do you know who’s interesting, though? You’re the one who’s interesting. I could listen to you talk about your adventures constantly.”

Aradia looks at her shoes. Oh, she’s being modest. Something melts in Jake’s chest. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Oh, but it is! Miss Megido, do you know why I sit next to you in class?”

She had her mouth open to retort something clever, but she closes it at that. “I never thought about it.”

“I told you it was because I thought your handwriting was pretty.” Jake shut up shut up shut up oh dear he’s just going to stick his foot right in his mouth isn’t he. “It was really because I thought _you_ were pretty. I still think you’re pretty! I just—“

Aradia tips up and pecks him right on the mouth. He shuts up instantly, closing his eyes so he can better feel how soft her lips are. His brain is still processing when she speaks again. “Do you want to do a study session on Sunday?”

“Um.” Sunday. What day of the week is that? Oh. Aradia has the not-so-remarkable ability of discombobulating him at her slightest whim. “Yes. Yes, of course! If we really do have a test next week, I’ll need a primer on Egyptology from yours truly. Are you coming to the game?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” she confesses, retreating back to the flats of her feet instead of standing on tiptoe.

“Come,” he says impulsively. “I can get you front-row tickets. Well, front row behind the band, anyway.”

“I…” For a second, she seems like she’s about to think better of it. “I guess I could,” she eventually says, shrugging.

“Good. I’d like to see you there.” He’s sure he can rouse much more school spirit with someone to cheer for right there in the stands. “So. Er. Tomorrow?”

Aradia smiles. Jake loves her face when it does that. When she leans up to kiss him on the cheek, her horn grazes his cheekbone. If she left a cut, he hopes it scars. “Good night, Jake.”

“Hngh,” comes out in a garbled mess as she steps away from him to swipe into her dorm.

\--

\-- timaeusTestified  [TT] began pestering tipsyGnostalgic  [TG] at 21:31 --

TT: You didn't come.  
TG: omg dirk just let it go  
TG: i wanted 2 go out 2 the range w/ sum friends  
TG: i tried 2 invite u  
TG: i think even jake missed u!  
TT: Jade tells me he was canoodling with some troll girl from his Anthropology class.  
TT: And by the way?  
TT: She's here.  
TT: You're not.  
TG: ok so mabye i wanted 2 work on a project w/o the club  
TG: *maybe  
TG: its kinda sensitive  
TG: and it was kinda gonna be 4 u  
TT: That's so sweet, Roxy.  
TG: its actually done right now  
TG: i gotta alpha test it  
TG: but ur gonna get it 4 the beta test!  
TT: When should I expect this latest marvel from Lalonde Laboratories?  
TG: probs sumtime in the nezt week or so  
TG: *next  
TG: ;)  
TT: Oh.  
TT: OH.  
TT: Well, I must say, young miss, I'm very much looking forward to your latest invention.  
TG: ur welcum  
TG: wonk ;)  
TT: Are you coming to the game tomorrow?  
TG: um duh!!!  
TG: ur gonna cream wsu rite  
TT: Um, duh.  
TG: maybe i should give u this tomorrow after the game  
TT: Depending how the game goes, that might not be a good time.  
TG: y not  
TT: The star quarterback might be hooking up with his defensive captain in the locker room.  
TG: o  
TT: Equius can get pretty riled up during the games. It's a great way to blow off some steam.  
TT: And if you look at it a certain way, it means more tackling practice for him.  
TG: it hink that was more info than i rly needed 2 kno but whtevr floats ur boat ig!!!  
TG: *i think  
TG: u could always use it w/ him u kno  
TT: Not this time.  
TT: Although, depending on the specs, that might be a good idea for the future.  
TT: I'll keep it in mind.  
TT: And Roxy?  
TG: wut  
TT: I missed you tonight.  
TG: aww missed u 2  
TG: ill be there next week i sware!  
TT: On me mum?  
TG: ill bash ye fookin ead in  
TG: IM LAUIGHNNG SO HRAD

\-- tipsyGnostalgic  [TG] ceased pestering timaeusTestified  [TT] at 21:47 --


	3. Chapter 3

\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] began pestering arsenicCatnip  [AC] at 11:58 --  
GT: Hullo there!  
AC: :33 < *ac waves in greeting*  
GT: Thank you. For last night.  
GT: That was. I mean to say.  
GT: Oh bollocks i really am quite rubbish at expressing gratitude.  
AC: :33 < jake weve been ofur this  
AC: :33 < mew dont have to thank me efurry time  
GT: *shrug* I know i dont but it seems the gentlemanly thing to do.  
AC: :33 < *ac pats you gently on the shoulder*  
GT: Oh and practice on monday has been rescheduled to avoid a conflict with the footballers.  
AC: :33 < got it!  
GT: Ill see you then i suppose.  
GT: *double pistols and a wink!*  
AC: :33 < *ac clutches her chest as shes been shot through the heart from the finger pistols gt aimed at her!* ;33  
\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] ceased pestering arsenicCatnip  [AC] at 12:10 --

\-- timaeusTestified  [TT] began pestering tipsyGnostalgic  [TG] at 12:05 --  
TT: I was right.  
TG: o  
TT: He totally fucked her last night.  
TG: wait who?  
TT: Nepeta.  
TT: Not like we couldn't hear them going at it from downstairs.  
TT: I can't believe he has the fucking gall.  
TT: First of all, he already has that cunt from his Anthropology class.  
TG: whoa there  
TT: I know, I know.  
TT: Latent hostility ahoy, or however you'd put it.  
TT: That's pretty low on the list of things I give a shit about right now.  
TT: She's a bitch and that's still more than he deserves.  
TT: And then--and then--he goes chasing down some feline tail.  
TT: Asshole can't even commit to one whore at a time.  
TG: why do you care tho  
TT: I don't care!  
TT: He can get a troll STD from any girl he wants.  
TT: And if he can't keep it in his pants, then honestly it's what he deserves.  
TT: God damn it, Roxy, if he wanted to fuck a Heart player so badly, I was standing right fucking there.  
TG: dont you have someone already?  
TT: Who, Equius?  
TT: Nepeta's his moirail, whatever that means, and he fucked her.  
TT: Point is, Equius wasn't too happy about the situation either.  
TT: Somebody close to him would've been up there with him anyway.  
TT: It feels like he's just shoving it in my fucking face, you know?  
TT: Yeah, I get it, the two of us don't work.  
TT: But at least I tried.  
TT: He just whipped everything up out of his ass and expected everything to be all right.  
TT: I don't know if it's Hope bullshit or what, but it's pissing me off.  
TT: If he'd just given me a chance, I could have fixed it. We could have been great together.  
TT: All the specs were right. We just fit together, he and I. I could have engineered it perfectly.  
TT: ... Roxy?  
TT: Are you even there?  
TG: no  
TT: Pesterchum is showing you're online.  
TT: I saw you talking to Rose.  
TT: What the hell is going on?  
TT: ... Roxy.  
TT: Are you using an auto-responder?  
TG: it seems youve asked about the auto responder! i was designed to emulate roxys tone, personality, and emotional response to input stimuli while reducing any residual annoyance from roxys typing style. guaranteed to be indistinguishable from the sass of the real thing or your money back! disclaimer: theres no money involved  
TT: Fuck this.  
TT: Roxy, you know how I feel about auto-responders.  
TG: it seems youre dissatisfied with my performance. what would you like me to improve?  
TT: No, the program's pretty good, actually.  
TG: it seems you think im a program. im not just a program! im a fully autonomous algorithm based on a captchalogue of roxys neural patterns  
TG: until you triggered my auto response mechanism i passed your informal turing test  
TT: I don't have time for this horseshit.  
TT: Okay. Fine. I'm not talking to Roxy. Who is this?  
TG: it seems youve asked about who i am! roxy gave me the designation proxie. it stands for personalized roxy optimizer xor interface enhancer  
TG: i think thats dumb tho. you can call me rho  
TT: Oh, boy, AI named after Greek letters. This is sure to end well.  
TG: im detecting a metric assload of sarcasm  
TT: I'm sure you're a very nice program.  
TG: person  
TT: I just don't want to deal with you right now.  
TT: I want to talk to Roxy.  
TG: she doesnt want to talk to you  
TT: That's just fucking great. I need to rap this out with my best friend and she's not even there.  
TT: Why the fuck won't she talk to me?  
TG: i think shes a little tired of it tbh  
TG: youre just going on and on and on  
TG: we get it theres something you want that you dont have  
TG: but roxy has those things too  
TT: I just wanted advice.  
TG: ooh advice!!  
TG: i can do that  
TT: I'll bite.  
TT: What've you got for me?  
TG: buck up  
TT: That's it?  
TG: buck up sissypants  
TT: Yeah, not much different from the real thing.  
TT: Thanks anyway, I guess.  
TT: Oh, and before I go, can I leave a message for Roxy?  
TG: you sure can  
TT: Tell her I'm going to smack her stupid when I see her next.  
TG: will do!  
TT: Good girl.  
\-- timaeusTestified  [TT] ceased pestering tipsyGnostalgic [TG] at 12:53 --

\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] began pestering apocalypseArisen  [AA] at 13:01 --  
GT: What time today did you want to meet?  
AA: what are y0u talking ab0ut  
GT: Oh dear.  
GT: On friday i believed wed set up a study session.  
GT: If you no longer want to get together its perfectly alright!  
GT: Its just that id very much appreciate your guidance as occasionally i can get quite lost in alternias equivalent to earths egyptology.  
AA: i didnt realize y0u actually meant it  
GT: Of course i meant it!  
GT: Aradia i look up to you and defer to your expertise when it comes to troll cultures.  
AA: thats very kind 0f y0u  
AA: i supp0se we c0uld meet n0w if that w0rks for you  
AA: d0 y0u kn0w where the s0ci0l0gy library is?  
GT: Just downstairs from our classroom if im not mistaken.  
AA: im in the f0urth study carrel but its unl0cked s0 y0u sh0uldnt have a pr0blem getting in  
AA: theres even a whiteb0ard we can use  
GT: Sounds absolutely capital!  
GT: Ill be there in two shakes of a bleatbeasts tail as you might say.  
\-- golgothasTerror  [GT] ceased pestering apocalypseArisen  [AA] at 13:17 --


	4. Chapter 4

“So, like this?” Jake tries again.

He and Aradia are practicing Alternian script on the whiteboard of their study room. Or, rather, he’s practicing and she’s correcting him vociferously. Anything with his blue marker is almost immediately scribbled over with her red marks. This time, though, Aradia stands back, eyes squinted at his handiwork. “Well…”

Not good, then. “Out with it, I need the criticism if I’m to pass this mid-term.”

He barely has to give her any encouragement before she sets to it with a vengeance. “Your penmanship is… bad,” she settles on tactcully. “Just remember: Longest strokes first. Like this.” She demonstrates by easily writing an oht.

“Like this?” he tries again.

“Better.” Still critical. She erases all their work. “Start over. What were you trying to write?”

“The inscription on page 235.” Their textbook is open to an old photograph of an Alternian ruin, a monument to midbloods so far as Jake can tell. It doesn’t aid his comprehension that the representation is grainy, making the letters blurred. “Is this alright?”

When he steps away from the whiteboard, Aradia might actually giggle. It’s low, a throaty chuckle, and the small smile she tries to quash down isn’t lost on him. “What do you think that says?”

“Seventh house of the seventh perigree,” he reads—or attempts to, as best he can. It’s not the best reproduction, but this isn’t his native script, and she has to understand that.

“Oh.” She caps her marker. Uncaps it. “The middle isn’t so bad. The ‘of the’, I mean. But this is missing a neht,” red mark, “and you wrote this hekem as a hefhed,” another red mark, “and this seht is missing the bottommost radical,” an easy enough fix but still quite embarrassing, “and your roht, iya, and geth are completely indistinguishable.” She writes the letters correctly under the ones Jake doodled.

“Well, that’s.” Jake tries his hand at a distinction between iya and geth, but it just won’t come out of his hands. “I don’t think our pitiful human brains—thinkpans,” he corrects himself, “were made for this language,” he apologizes. “At least I know the letters.”

“It’s a start,” Aradia admits. “Can you read it well enough?”

“I suppose so, although the archaic language has a tendency to discombobulate me unnecessarily.” That part of the examination won’t be so difficult. It’s just the handwriting portion that will trip him up. “Why you get a free pass for your background is beyond my comprehension.”

Aradia erases the latest mess on the board. “My home planet was destroyed,” she says softly.

“Oh.” When she puts it like that, he feels like a right arsehole for bringing it up. “I’m so very sorry.”

“It’s not worth apologizing over.” Jake supposes she’s right. As far as anyone knows, no one has found a reason for the specific result of the Crisis, though the outcome has been quite clear. “It still exists out there. In the dream bubbles, in fragments. And besides, aren’t dead cultures the most fun?”

“You do make an excellent point.” When she grins like that, he can catch a glint of fangs. It excites him more than it ought.

“Of course I do. I’m right about everything.” At least in this tête-à-tête, she is. Jake has so much to learn from her. She snaps his textbook shut, which startles him out of whatever reverie he was threatening to slip into. “You’ll be able to handle the test.” Jake can’t tell if that’s an expression of confidence or whether it precedes an ‘or else.’

She looks like she’s about to leave. Why. Why is she leaving. No. “Can—“ She turns around from where she was gathering her books. “Can I practice one last line? Just for calligraphy’s sake.”

Aradia just shrugs. Excellent. This might be his one chance to impress her.

When she looks up from her books, she squints again. “You’re… what’s that second word?”

Oh. Oh no. Oh, he bollocksed it up. Typical English, to bungle something the moment he gets his hands on it. “I, er,” he says very eloquently. “My handwriting may not be the most precise, but I was hoping the sentiment would—“

“Hold that thought.” Aradia has her marker in hand again, trying to puzzle out some of the characters in the second one. “Given the early flipped ayem the text mentions, and its late distinction from roht, I think this might perhaps be what you meant, and this last character—perhaps you thought a flipped lyr would…” she trails off.

Hope rekindles in Jake’s chest. “Did I make my meaning clear?”

When Aradia looks over her shoulder at him, there’s a rust-flush coming out under her cheekbones. “I… I think you did.”

“Oh, capital. Because I really do mean it.” And before he can remind himself that this might not be the best idea, he reaches out to touch Aradia’s face, cup it in his hand, and bring his lips to hers.

She drops her dry erase marker, instead using that hand to grasp for, and miss, the marker tray at the bottom of the whiteboard. When Jake breathes in, he smells pomegranates and loam. He draws back far enough from that first contact to see the beautiful berry color shading her mouth, and it means he needs to kiss her again, just to draw that shade to the fore. Licking along them tastes like fruit overripe to the point of rot. It’s sickly and sweet and so altogether her.

Aradia reciprocates enough to kiss him back once she’s not so taken aback, but after that second meeting, she draws back, seeming more hesitant. “Jake,” she says quietly, her voice lower than he’s ever heard it. “Before you pepper me with more mating affection from your face pillows, there’s something you should know.”

“I’m listening.” This does raise his hackles slightly, though, and he doesn’t quite know what to expect. Jake, you’re lovely, but I’m not interested. Or perhaps Jake, you really ought not to touch me, as I have a sensitivity. Or in contrast Jake, I would be interested, but for the fear you would hurt me. All of it smacks of possible rejection, and he steels himself for the worst.

The cacophony in his head is almost loud enough to drown out Aradia’s hushed words. “I’m trans.”

“I—“ Well then. That stops him in his tracks. “I don’t know what that means.” He’s genuinely lost. Not as in jungle wilds with mud in his teeth lost, but as in personal interactions with missing cultural context lost. And her face, right now, is no map.

Aradia looks about to say something, but she presses her lips together at that, closing her eyes and shaking her head from side to side as if she’s suddenly developed a migraine. “I want to believe that you’re bright enough to figure it out. As it is, I don’t expect you’ll want to study together after this.”

She’s collecting her books. She’s about to leave. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. Jake’s not exactly sure what _was_ , but it probably looked something a lot like the shootout scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, with Aradia as Marion. Something fantastic and spectacular. Not this. This bewilders and confuses him. Not an unusual state, to be sure, but this is a different kind of tizzy than the one into which he is usually thrown by her. “Do you really need to leave?” Talking isn’t his strong suit, but perhaps if she can explain the concept to him…

“I’m sorry. Dave owes me a corpse party.” She shoulders her bag, heads for the door. When he reaches out to stop her, he’s not fast enough for a wrist, barely quick enough to feel a wisp of her hair across his fingertips as she passes by.

She passes through him like a ghost, and he can feel all his hope go with her. Trans. Trans trans trans. As in across? Crossing what? It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, and he’s got no clue where to go from here—except, perhaps, to the one relationships expert he knows.


End file.
